Just curious here if anyone has made or set out to make a cohesive album (i.e. not just a collection of random tracks, but something that feels like it fits together) at any point, and how it went.
I tried a few years ago but ended up with only about twenty six minutes of music before running out of ideas.
I want to try again at some point when I feel like I have more of a vision of what I'm going for.
19503
see the Eric J and Mario Interview thread. Great album there.
Eric J
quote:
Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
Just curious here if anyone has made or set out to make a cohesive album (i.e. not just a collection of random tracks, but something that feels like it fits together) at any point, and how it went.
I tried a few years ago but ended up with only about twenty six minutes of music before running out of ideas.
I want to try again at some point when I feel like I have more of a vision of what I'm going for.
Well we just released an artist album, but it was definitely more in the realm of a "collection of tracks". We certainly did not set out initially with the idea of releasing the tracks as anything other than singles. Once we got a request from our label to put together an "album", we had already written half the music. However, we write pretty diversified music (as far as EDM goes), so we were able to avoid the EDM trap of having 12 tracks that pretty much sound exactly alike.
We did add a little bit of cohesiveness by making the title track two parts, but that certainly doesn't qualify it as a proper album as you describe it. That being said, now that we have released the album, we are writing new material with more of an eye on having the music as part of a real "album". For us, that really means writing more music with vocalists and having a few tracks that are not strictly dance tracks (more downtempo and ambient tracks). I kind of look at things like Chicane's Behind The Sun as a template, where there is a few 4 on the floor tracks, a few downtempo tracks and the ambient track or two to make a complete album.
I'm kind of with you on setting out to make something "cohesive" and trying to write music with the intention of releasing it as a proper "album" rather than just a collection of singles. The problem (at least for us) is that EDM is really mostly a singles business, so unless you are doing this full time, it can be a bit difficult to write 10 or 12 tracks in a year and still do enough side work (remixes or aliases) to keep your name out there in the EDM circles.
cryophonik
I've considered it and a lot of people that I work with tell me I should, but I have a pretty serious case of musical ADD, so it probably wouldn't be cohesive and I doubt I could stay focused and excited about it long enough to see it through to completion.
MrJiveBoJingles
quote:
Originally posted by Eric J
I'm kind of with you on setting out to make something "cohesive" and trying to write music with the intention of releasing it as a proper "album" rather than just a collection of singles. The problem (at least for us) is that EDM is really mostly a singles business, so unless you are doing this full time, it can be a bit difficult to write 10 or 12 tracks in a year and still do enough side work (remixes or aliases) to keep your name out there in the EDM circles.
Yeah, good point.
Eric J
quote:
Originally posted by cryophonik
I've considered it and a lot of people that I work with tell me I should, but I have a pretty serious case of musical ADD, so it probably wouldn't be cohesive and I doubt I could stay focused and excited about it long enough to see it through to completion.
Actually, either you need to move to Texas or I need to move to California. I think between the two of us we could knock it out in less than a year. :)
EddieZilker
Yes. I'm always a little leery about promoting it since it's so ghetto DIY. I learned a hell of a lot doing it, though. Subsequent to the first, I rendered the tail from the previous song and constructed a musical idea around that. If you're listening, please, pardon the skips - it's supposed to be contiguous but the player doesn't really allow for that. I do apologize.
As far as my own enjoyment of the process, it was great. It also kind of tracks some of the real-life--storms I was going through while I made it. "Suzanne's Theme" (Which I think I'm going to remix/remaster and release as a single, shortly) was started on one of the worst days I've had since moving to Michigan.
I wasn't really aiming the album towards any particular audience and was really just kind of going with the flow of it. I'd try and aim for peaks in intensity, along with trials of my keyboarding and overall compositional skill but that was really about it, in addition to making music which I thought (for myself) was enjoyable.
The hardest part was mastering the contiguous product. I think I had to do about two to three different renders for each song, and sometimes more, when I'd hear something that was really off in the contiguous mix. "Once upon a Safire Twilight" and "Hard to be Beautiful" (both intentional stabs at irony, the former being authored right around the same time NYT's Columnist past away) were both thorns in my ass. Since I kind of worked the mastering, myself, it has some elements to it that I've tried to avoid in making my subsequent work.
Mad for Brad
I think albums are cool if there is an actual connection between the songs like a symphony or sonata. I don't think you need 12 songs as you aren't selling it on cd. 5 good songs that relate to each other is a good idea. I wish electronic artists would stop making songs without any concept of form structure and tying things together making something a little more cohesive and interesting than mere dance floor fodder.
Subtle
I released an album late last year, went pretty well.
Working on a new album now.
